Building Europe with Open LLMs - Manu Setälä.pptx

Building Europe with Open LLMs - Manu Setälä.pptx

• 1.
  Mindtrek: Building Europe with OpenLLMs Manu Setälä, Head of Research Solita Oy
• 2.
  About me andSolita Oy Manu Setälä, Head of Research at Solita, https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuset/ • First software-related income in early 80's, with formal ICT studies starting in 1987. • Interest in research is broad: public sector digital ecosystems, secure AI, AI-assisted solutions, etc. Solita Oy, Founded in 1996, https://www.solita.fi/ • 10 countries, 2200+ highly skilled Data, AI, Design, and Software Development professionals. • We combine strategic consulting, service design, and software development to deliver impact that lasts. • Strong focus on AI: Leading the development and transition to Generative AI for our clients (e.g., Solita FunctionAI platform - https://www.solita.fi/solita-function-ai/).
• 3.
  Background & why •Europe is aging, and fewer people are required to provide services to society. • More work will be done by ICT  Europe could become an AI-enabled society: public services, infrastructure, and decision-making increasingly run on digital systems. • This change is no longer a choice, but a necessity. • In future LLMs play a significant role in the area of AI-enabled society. • Significant part of society's activities are controlled by software • As little manual work as possible • (at least) Part of decision-making will be automated, hopefully safely, transparently, and responsibly. • Dependency on non-European LLM providers (US, China) risks sovereignty, transparency, and competitiveness. • Open LLMs offer a European way: accessible, transparent, multilingual, and aligned with our democratic values.
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  EU – sameregulation  same solutions • Develop once, use in every country • Open source • European hosting / cloud
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  What (approach /solution) • Open LLMs as building blocks: open-source models (Mistral, LLaMA, Falcon, etc.) enable innovation, customization, and trust. • Benefits: • Transparency: bias and safety can be audited. • Adaptability: models tailored to local languages and domains. • Ecosystem growth: SMEs, researchers, and public sector can innovate without billion-dollar budgets. • Challenges: • Compute and infrastructure costs – this is both challenge and opportunity. • Regulatory clarity (AI Act; Data Act, GDPR, …, liability in open models). • Need for pan-European collaboration to reach scale! • Not efficient that every country makes own solutions, and not very exportable  “Dev once use every country”
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  How (implementation /action) • We must • create a concept and reference models for an AI-enabled society; • develop solutions that enable generative artificial intelligence to produce the necessary software without traditional programming; • establish the legal, technical, and organizational prerequisites for this new operating model. The steps: 1. Exploration & pilots: national-level use cases in public services (regulation-driven) 2. European collaboration: Horizon-scale initiatives, open-source consortia, shared compute infrastructure 3. Sustainable ecosystem: combining research, startups, large companies, and public sector in an open innovation loop.
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  Strategic value (benefit/ impact) • Strengthens Europe’s technological sovereignty. • Unlocks multilingual and multicultural AI leadership. • Supports public trust and democratic legitimacy through openness. • Builds a foundation for export-ready digital solutions and green scalability. Some “calculations” • Only public cloud costs in Europe about $142G 70% to USA ( = $100G = 10^11). CAGR 19% • https://my.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prEUR153716725 • According to IBISWorld software development in Europe is about 500 G€ - so with European solutions this would be more than 20 % growth in Europe. • Remember also license costs and so on – this could be 50% + 100% growth • PLUS “snowball effect” and export
• 8.
  We can doit together • Research in Universities and VTT e.g. • Running: ANSE = AI Native Software Engineering, JKL/Tommi Mikkonen & TUNI/Pekka Abrahamsson • Proposal preparation phase: Sovereign service infrastructure for digital transformation, JKL/Samuli Pekkola • Many co-innovations already running: ELFMo, Genius, MAISA, … • Public sector: potential for grant (Innovative public procurement – in FI: Innovatiiviset julkiset hankinnat) Companies R&D + execution Public Body user of new solution • Tech competense • Solution provider Research • Legal framework • New Software Engineering • Need & Cross-border solution steering • Promoting legislative changes Business Finland and Horizon Europe Support for the organisations to try this new idea University research
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  Summary “Building Europe withOpen LLMs is not just about technology – it is about sovereignty, values, and the ability to shape our own digital future together.” + Huge potential business growth MEGA = Make EUROPE Great Again
• 10.
  Discussion & Questions Manu Setälä SolitaOy